Editor’s note: Coco Picard spoke with artists about their project Untidy Objects, on view outdoors at adjacent to the Logan Center for the Arts. Edited text from the comic is transcribed here to ease readability. Just south of Hyde Park’s Logan Center for the Arts, an acre of land hosts Untidy Objects, a dynamic multispecies […]
Category: Art Feature
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New gadgets, old problems
“Difference Machines: Technology and Identity in Contemporary Art,” a tech-heavy exhibition that features 17 international artists and 20 artworks, invites exhibition-goers to survey a slice of recent technology history wrought with excitement, problems, and critical reflections. The works confirm what we already know—technology does not solve human problems; instead, it exposes them brutally, increasing inequality […]
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Discover five new Chicagoland artists
Chicago’s art scene wouldn’t be as vibrant if we didn’t have so much new talent entering the flow each year. After all, art is about growth, change, and discovery. In its past editions, the Cleve Carney Museum of Art’s Emerging Artist Exhibit has highlighted some of the most iconic Chicagoland artists, including 2021 Joan Mitchell […]
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My love affair with rats
My love affair with rats came imperceptibly, without ready origins. Certainly, it didn’t start with a youthful embrace of pet rats—my friend Will had a few, and their furry bodies scampering around his bedroom only unsettled me. A decade ago, in my first fall at Northwestern University, my friend Ramona slipped a plastic rat into […]
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An art project visualizes the migrant crisis
Oscar B. Castillo and Wil Sands’s ongoing project “BordersCruzadas: A Collaborative Story,” on view at the new Community Engagement Hub on Columbia College Chicago’s 600 S. Michigan campus, forces viewers to confront ingrained assumptions about American exceptionalism. Part photography, part archival material, “BordersCruzadas” features Castillo and Sands’s documentarian work completed over the past year as […]
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Making waves
“The view that unions are a hostile force within a workplace is fundamentally incorrect. Creating a union is an act of love: love for your work, love for your colleagues, and love for the institution that means a great deal to many people.” This is a view that came to the forefront of my conversation […]
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Artist Rufina Bazlova uses embroidery as a form of ‘gentle protest’
Rufina Bazlova is not afraid to surrender her art to activism. Born in Belarus, a former Soviet republic ruled by the authoritarian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko for 29 years now, Bazlova knows all too well that being apolitical is a privilege many Eastern Europeans cannot afford. 2020 was a pivotal year for Belarus, not only because […]
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How much plastic is in Lake Michigan?
Plastic has been found in the corpses of elephants in Sri Lanka, in human breast milk, in fish in Lake Michigan, in bottled water, in Antarctica. You’ve probably heard of the Great Pacific garbage patch, a floating mass of disintegrating plastic between Hawai’i and California that’s estimated to cover 620,000 square miles. Or the statistic […]
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Te quiero para siempre / I love you forever
August 11 proved to be one of the most queer nights at the Chicago Art Department. The Gage Park Latinx Council was putting on an exhibition, “En el Abismo, Me Encontré,” where QTBIPOC artists from Chicago explored the ideas of life, dreams, and magic. In the next space the “Amigas Latinas Forever” exhibition was installed. […]
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Sydnie Jimenez sculpts a new vision of beauty
In the care of a collector in Miami, Sydnie Jimenez’s self-portrait stands tall, immortalizing her and her twin sister, Haylie, in a side-by-side embrace. “The person who bought it is also a twin,” the 25-year-old says. Reaching about four feet in height, the sculpture emanates a sweet and soothing presence. Haylie’s clay fingernails and toenails […]
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Fall in love with Chicago’s visual arts scene
With shorter days and a slight chill in the air comes the fall art season, and 2023 has a bounty of cultural offerings. Launching this season is the first-ever Chicago Exhibition Weekend, presented by Expo Chicago and cultural agency Gertie, taking place September 29 through October 1. The event is aimed at getting more visitors […]
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Biennial as experimentation
In 2017, a barge drifted along the Chicago River. It wasn’t carrying the usual Ozinga concrete or gravel; instead it floated a museum. Produced by the Floating Museum, an interdisciplinary collective comprised of architect Andrew Schachman, artists Faheem Majeed and Jeremiah Hulsebos-Spofford, and poet avery r. young, the museum barge showcased artwork from dozens of […]
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‘Black Light Cinema Project’ brings film to the forefront
“Black Light Cinema Project” opened July 7 at the South Side Community Art Center with a focus on belonging, home, archival materials, and the self. The topic of identity saturates both galleries, although with different content, allowing them to juxtapose one another while working in unison. The Center’s 1893 mansion, a former home in the […]
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For artist Ruby Que, spoons are a metaphor in life and in their practice
Editor’s note: Coco Picard spoke with Chicago artist Ruby Que about their exhibition “Holding” at the outdoor project space Bird Show. Edited text from the comic is transcribed here to ease readability. Furthering Chicago’s long-standing tradition of artist-run apartment, outdoor, and itinerant exhibition venues: welcome to Bird Show, a seasonal gallery of juried contemporary art […]
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The waves
The elements water and air both seem to possess an aloof quality. They lurk until they want their presence known, like a hurricane. Water drips through our synapses and air expands our lungs like bellows. We’re beings of water and air, held aloft by the systems we create to corral waves and tame winds. This […]